Hiking

We had a mostly good time at Antelope Island on Monday. Much to my absolute shock they do have antelope there, but I am not completely crazy with my antelope doubts. Apparently they did all die out years ago, but were re-introduced in the 90s. We did see a dozen or so of the alleged antelope, as well as a bunch of buffalo. Monkey was only really impressed by a huge buffalo, standing alone in the middle of the road. We hiked around, had a picnic lunch and checked out the ranch house. Monkey enjoyed himself the most at the ranch house, where he sat in a tree 7 feet up and played with bark and leaves for half an hour. I enjoyed myself the most talking to the two women spinning there. I need a wheel; this drop-spindle business is for the birds. Even did some knitting in public while speaking with them and was asked questions by the curious (who probably wondered why I was dressed so not-historically with the blue hair.)

Happy Memorial Day!

Today we are waiting for the inlaws to show up, so we can take Monkey to Antelope Island. As I understand, there are no actual antelope there but hopefully it will be fun anyway. It has been a pretty busy weekend despite the rainy weather, so while the rock climbing got canceled lots of other things did get done. Friday we snuck in a hike in Little Cottonwood Canyon before the weather became strangely cold. Everything was so green and beautiful, and the river is unbelievably high. To high to let Monkey even get close to in our favorite protected and (usually) slow moving spot, so he splashed for an hour in a small run-off creek that went right down the trail. Freezing cold fun at only two inches deep.
Have a happy Memorial day everyone. Spend some time thinking about someone who has affected your life drastically but is no longer with you. Share this memory with someone else - this is how people live on.

Kids these days...

My kid sat on my bed for over half an hour today, letting an electric fan blow his pinwheel. He'd still be there if he hadn't started sticking things in the fan blade and giggling (he likes the forbidden thwackthwackthack sound, but he laughs and gives himself away every time.)

Stash enrichment...

Two women in Atlanta are accused of stealing nearly $13000 worth of yarn from several yarn stores.
Holy crap.
I've been trying to come up with some clever remark about enriching your stash to the extreme, but I'm at a loss for words.

Finished socks!

I just finished the Momsocks, only one week late. I am amazed at how remarkably identical they are; aparently the Knitpicks Simple Stripes yarn is dyed in a manner that is downright mathmatical. Tonight they will get blocked and tomorrow they will be in the mail, on their way to California to arrive hopefully while they are having some unusual cold weather. I probably should have planned the socks for her birthday (November) and come up with some other clever Mother's day idea, but sometimes you just have to hop on your bad idea and ride it.
After grafting closed the toe tonight I was considering what an elegant solution the kitchner stitch really is. You k p p k a few times across the toe and TADA! No evidence that you were even there. I'd write a song about it but A) I am not much of a songwriter, just rhythm guitar, and B) I probably couldn't get the guys to perform it. "Thank you! This next song was written by erin. It's about coughknittingcough..." Not exactly the image we're going for.
Coming up tomorrow when I hopefully have more time, pics of my violet hair! I don't have any yarn to dye like everyone is doing, but the protein growing from my head is fair game.

Attention!

Men of the world, attention! I'm only going to say this once, so listen up.

This behavior will not get you laid:

That is all.

Knitting enabler

I love self-striping yarn. It is the perfect enabler to staying up too late knitting. You think,
"Wow, it's getting late. Just one more round and I'll stop."
But it's hard to remember where you started, so the once around turns into approximately 1 2/3. Then you reason,
"I'm so close to the end of this color, I'll stop then."
But the next color is really the short-stripped part, and it is easy enough to justify knitting up that. After that is just more of the original color, and why stop then? Just keep knitting until you actually get to the real next color. But you are on a roll and when you reach the next color, you forget to stop and the whole cycle starts over again. Before you know it, it's midnight and you are really tired but hey, your sock looks good.

Good thing I don't have a job.

(Those of you who know me and have met my kid already know that the last statement was hysterical. The rest of you do now.)

Ninja!

My sister finally sent me some pictures of the shirt I printed for her birthday. As you can see, she is a Ninja and needed a proper Ninja shirt:



















Cool Ninja sword screened onto the back:



















Across the front, Beware of Ninja (in the most polite form possible):

Happy Mothers Day

Great big hugs and a happy Mother's day to all Mommas, Mammas, Moms, Mothers, Mommys, anyone who has a mother, anyone who has thought about becoming a mother, lives with a mother, works with a mother, has seen a mother on TV, or has ever been called One Hot Momma.


I have had a wonderful day so far with my two boys. We went to the park outside the library and played in the fountain. I got to soak my feet and knit while the boys splashed. I don't know if I am eligible for the Amazing Lace as I have already started my Shetland Tea Shawl, but I find the idea quite inspiring. I also read a really great entry by Yarn Harlot where she wrote about slowly knitting a pair of socks while she tours with her book and taking pictures along the way, creating socks with so many memories incorporated along with every stitch. "A pair of socks so chock full of memories that you could scarcely wear them." I think back at the times I have pulled out this piece of lace and already it is pretty heavy with memories and emotions. I dyed the wool at home and hung it from the chandelier light in my living room, right over my computer. My monkey pulled out the needles when I foolishly left it where it could be reached. I ripped back to my lifeline and put it back on my needles while in the emergency room with my son, resting my head against his little sedated arm and feeling more scared then I've ever been. I've knit in three different parks here while watching him play with his daddy. This summer I'll take it into the mountains as we rock climb, and backpack into places so devoid of other people the silence is tangible. I hope to have the chance to fly back to Japan, and knit my way across the Pacific Ocean. Actually finishing and wearing the shawl is already secondary to what I am putting in to it.

Graduation

Today was another very busy but quite wonderful day: Marc graduated from Law school! It is such an unbelievable relief to be done. So at the very latest, in October we will be an active duty Air Force family with all the benefits (like health insurance!) that comes with it.
Woman, it has just been milestone after photo-op for us this past week.
In knitting news, i am literally sitting here at the computer finishing up the toe on Momsock #1 right now. So much for pounding out a pair for Mother's day. Once I turned that heel I totally thought I was in the home stretch, aparently forgetting the 'foot' part of the sock. At least this way I can show her the sock and let her know that another is coming, really! I might even wait to finish until she gets back from the park with the monkey, to make sure they fit the way she would like them. I don't know about the rest of you, but my feet end straight across the toes like Daisy Duck, and a tapered toe just does not work for me. Once I've knit enough length I can pretty much just kitchner stitch all the way across the toe.

Turned Heel!

Hurray! Saturday I effectively turned the heel on the Momsock. The individual sock is looking great but I do need to hurry up; I need them done by Saturday afternoon. Pictures to follow, hopefully after I finish it tonight.
This weekend was very busy. Marc's Air Force commissioning was Saturday, and my brother's Army commissioning was Friday. I am so proud! The monkey and I got to get up and pin on Marc's lieutenant bars after he was sworn in, which was really cool. Sadly this does not make us employed or anything useful like that. Marc will not enter the AF full time until his Bar Exam results are in and he takes the Military Law class in October. But still! We are now that much closer. There is also a pretty good chance that Marc could be sent to Japan for 6 weeks after he takes the Bar in July; apparently the AF needs more people who speak Japanese and with all the classes we've taken plus our study abroad we are pretty good candidates. Then we would be entering active duty that much earlier; which would be good $-wise for us.
Disappointingly, the monkey had another seizure today. I wasn't (much) scared this time, just really sad that his meds didn't prevent this one. Since he got off the Dilantin he has been much less moody, and I am hoping he never needs to go on it again. I really want the Trileptal to take care of things all by itself. So the doctor upped his Trileptal dosage. Hopefully it is what is called a "breakthrough seizure" and his now adjusted meds will prevent any more. Still upsetting though.

Socks

Tonight I got off my butt and instead of reading about how to knit socks I actually cast on and am knitting away. I seem to be rather chicken about proceeding without a pattern, something I found rather surprising considering the only thing I've ever used a pattern for is lace. Hats, sweaters, bags and booties; all knit without a pattern. But this is my first real sock and it seems I wanted a (very simple) security blanket. Well, tough luck. All the patterns out there are for fancy-smancy socks that seemed a little silly to use this self-striping yarn with, or were not patterns but advice about writing your own pattern. I think my calculus professors would have found it funny to know I now use my really expensive graphing calculator for gauge purposes.
Tonight I have knit two inches of 2x1 ribbing, which is so nice and stretchy I'll probably do it for the whole sock. I'm pretty happy with my speed so far, at this point a Mother's Day due date does not look like an impossibility. We'll see how I feel about that in a few days.

On non-knitting news, the monkey continues to be seizure-free. He is switching over to just one med tomorrow evening, something I am looking forward too. He has been hugely cranky several days now and I'm praying that it is because of the drug he is finishing tomorrow. Hopefully the other med on its own will be enough to prevent any further seizures.

Blogger hates me

A quick synopsis of everything I tried typing before hand, all of which keeps disappearing into the void:
A last picture before taken before the stitch count doubles and it turns into the big rumpled looking mess. Any later photos taken before blocking will be simply for my own amusement. That is sure some nifty looking yarn.

I can not for anything remember who is was that recommended using tiny pieces of a drinking straw as stitch markers, but I would sure like to send that person a great big virtual hug. Genius idea! They are flat, too small to affect the spacing between stitches, and when they (frequently) slingshot off the end of my needle and into oblivion I don't feel sad.

The monkey continues to do well on his meds. We went to the Dr to check the drug levels in his blood and all looks good. He has two skinned elbows from feeling a little dizzy but I think they make him look tough.

Actual knitting news

Things have been going smoothly since last Thursday when we wound up at Primary Children's again. The monkey is on two different anti-seizure medications; drug #1 that he will probably be on for a year or so as well as drug #2, which he will only be on for a week until drug #1 reaches therapeutic levels in his blood. Drug #1 is expected to be pretty mild in side effects, much better than some of the older anti-seizure medications. Drug #2 is making him a little crabby, so it will be nice to finish that up Wednesday. I am starting to breath a little more normally and even will let the boy out of my site for two, even three seconds now. Yeah, way more relaxed.
I have got a lot done on my Shetland Tea Shawl in the last couple days. I had to rip down a dozen rows to my one stupid lifeline because some sneaky little hands pulled all the needles out and played with it, but it came back together easier than I thought and I'm zipping along now. Tonight I did the 5th increase round, bringing my stitch total to 290 per round. Now for no discernible reason I'm worried about running out of yarn. Not true, I do know why. I'm swatching up my knitpics yarn to do my Mother's day socks with and even using little size one needles I'm getting 7 1/2 stitches per inch, instead of the 8 stitches on size 1-3 needles the tag promised me. I didn't think I knit loosely until now. My STS swatch was...not exactly definitive, as I knit up a square in the fern pattern instead of a plain block. Hopefully I can soothe my concerns by reminding myself I did dye 140 yards more than the pattern called for. Has anyone knit this? How much yarn did you end up using?